


sparkling

by moonsixes



Category: ONEUS (Band)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Character Study, Fluff, Gen, OT6, Team Dynamics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-10
Updated: 2020-05-10
Packaged: 2021-03-03 02:29:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,072
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24107521
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/moonsixes/pseuds/moonsixes
Summary: Dongju likes pretty things that shine and sparkle, but most of all he likes the pretty things that belong to his members.(Or, Dongju is a total nester, but with other people's jewellery.)
Comments: 8
Kudos: 118





	sparkling

**Author's Note:**

> This fic was entirely inspired by Dongju saying that people at the company call him a crow because he likes sparkly things so much in the [ASWE Promotions Behind #3 video](https://youtu.be/Wa0CwCyucGA?t=317).

His fixation begins innocently enough, before it can really even be called a fixation. It's simple: Dongju likes pretty things. Anything that sparkles or glimmers can turn his head. It's always been like this; even as a kid he'd been drawn to shiny trinkets, keeping collections of random things that catch his eye. Little boxes filled with coins and bits of metal and glass that shine when he holds them up in the light and tinkle when he moves the container, the objects inside knocking against each other.

He's always noticed jewellery, admired anything from his parents' plain gold rings to flashy diamonds in glossy, polished advertisements, but it never really occurs to him to wear much of it himself before he gets put into the dependable hands of a stylist and thrust in front of the cameras.

Watching himself in the mirror as the stylist fastens the clasp of a simple, single chain around his neck, Dongju feels a rush of satisfaction at how pretty it looks draped across his collarbones.

It doesn't take long for people to start noticing how fond he is of the jewellery he gets to wear. The stylists routinely bring out their jewellery cases to let him pick his own pieces from whichever selection they've put together for that today's outfits. Sometimes when he finds a piece that he particularly likes, if he asks nicely, the stylists will let him take it home. He has a penchant for silver, likes the cool finish against the undertone of his skin, and there's almost no gold in his own collection.

Sitting in front of one of the mirrors in the waiting room for a music show, Dongju runs his fingertips almost reverently over the rows of rings and chains, torn between them all. Hwanwoong, in the chair next to him, is fastening on a pair of studs, and Dongju watches him.

Hwanwoong meets his eyes in the mirror. "You want to get your ears pierced too? We can take you somewhere nice and get them done."

Dongju reaches up instinctively to touch his own earlobe. It's soft, and he scrunches up his face when he thinks of someone poking a hole through it.

"Or not," Hwanwoong laughs. He hands Dongju a pair of tiny hoops. They're nothing fancy, just like the ones that Hwanwoong usually wears at home or when they're out dressed casually, with no shows on their schedule, but they have a clip-on mechanism instead. "Try these, then. They start to hurt a bit if you leave them on for too long, and your ears might get red — Keonhee's do — but I think you'll look good in them."

"I have sensitive skin," Keonhee protests, passing by just in time to hear that comment, but he nods approvingly when Dongju puts the hoops on. "They suit you, Dongju."

The earrings pinch a bit, an unfamiliar and kind of unpleasant sensation, but Dongju does like the way they look, adding a refreshing decoration to an utterly mundane part of his body. After the show, his ears are a little sore, and it's a relief to take them off, but Dongju misses the way they frame his face nicely. He feels a little bare all of a sudden, without any jewellery on. Looking over to where Hwanwoong is sitting next to him again, about to remove his own accessories, Dongju reaches across and grabs Hwanwoong's left hand. He's wearing two rings: one has a smooth, wide band with no stone or engravings, and the other is slim, braided delicately like a wreath.

"Hey," Hwanwoong protests, as Dongju starts tugging at the rings, pulling them off his fingers. "Those are actually mine, you know."

He's smiling though, and Dongju grins back mischievously as he slips them on. The metal is still warm from Hwanwoong's skin, and they fit him nicely. When it's clear that he's not ready to return them just yet, Hwanwoong rolls his eyes, and forgets about it soon as Keonhee starts hollering about dinner.

Hwanwoong doesn't ask for them back when they get home either, just flops on top of his sheets and falls asleep almost immediately, so Dongju pulls a blanket over him and leaves the rings on as he gets ready for bed. They clink together satisfyingly as he washes his face, and he stops to peer at them in the mirror, hand resting on his cheek. He likes remembering the way they looked on Hwanwoong's small hand, likes how pretty they are on his own fingers, too.

His jewellery box is wooden, made of a dark grain with a glossy lacquer over the top, and the inside is lined with midnight blue velvet. It looks beautiful underneath the silver of Hwanwoong's rings.

Dongju likes having _things._ It's not a materialistic want, exactly. He does like admiring how nice his little collection of jewellery looks, seeing the pieces lined up next to each other in shining rows in his box, or adorning his own fingers and wrists and neck. But he feels a different kind of possessiveness when he looks at Hwanwoong's rings sitting there next to his own, and he wants more.

He puts one of them on again a few days later, the wide one, wears it on his middle finger. Hwanwoong spies it after breakfast and makes an attempt to take it back, pulling Dongju towards him and grabbing at his hand, but Dongju is ready for him and fights him all the way. His saviour is in Youngjo, who decides to hinder Hwanwoong by wrapping his arms around him from behind, chin resting on his shoulder, and Dongju catches a glimpse of something shining underneath his collarbones.

"Play nice," Youngjo says, squeezing Hwanwoong tight.

"Fine," Hwanwoong huffs, and squirms out of Youngjo's grip. "But you have to at least let me borrow my own things back sometime, yeah?"

"Sure," Dongju says, but he's distracted by the chain that swings gently from Youngjo's collar. 

There's two pins pushed into the material of the collar of his button-up shirt, a small ring attached just above each point, with a thin chainlink that hangs between them. Dongju can't resist; he reaches out without thinking and strokes his fingertips along the length of the chain.

Youngjo looks down on him fondly and ruffles his hair, startling Dongju out of his trance. Dongju whines a little, petulant, when Youngjo steps back, but Youngjo just smiles and starts taking the pins off his shirt. "You like this kind of thing, right? I bet it'll look nice with some of your clothes too."

Dongju's wearing a t-shirt today, so Youngjo just presses the collar pins into his hand, and Dongju slips them in to his pocket carefully, keeping them in his palm, rolling the chain between his fingers where nobody can see.

Seoho's watched the exchange between them, and calls it out teasingly. "Are you spoiling our Dongju again?"

"Be careful, hyung," Hwanwoong says. "If you keep encouraging him like this, he'll become unstoppable."

He's not wrong. Dongju's taste for his members' jewellery only grows with his collection, the amalgamation of polished metal in his jewellery box only driving him to covet even more. Sometimes he's sly about it, trying to unclasp a necklace without a word while someone's distracted with other things, or slipping bracelets right off Keonhee's slim wrists. Other times, he asks outright to take something he likes, and more often than not he is indulged. Seoho likes to refuse Dongju just to frustrate him, and Keonhee pouts and complains, but in the end they always relent. Anyone who pushes back more Dongju simply overwhelms with his sheer persistence.

"Stop that already," Geonhak says, slapping at Dongju's hands as he flicks at his earlobe, tugging on the long chains that hang down. Dongju is always fascinated by the earrings that Geonhak wears, dangling down the line of his jaw and curving along the shell of his ear, glittering in the light.

"I like this," Dongju says. "Can I have it?"

"You can't even wear it!"

"I like it," Dongju insists.

It doesn't take all that long for Geonhak to crack and let Dongju gently remove the backing of the studs holding it in place, slipping the earring out and putting it away safely. He's weak to Dongju, they all are, unable to resist their stubborn youngest.

Dongju is still reluctant to pierce his ears despite how much he likes the look of the earrings Geonhak likes to wear, so he keeps this one in his box where it lies prettily amongst the rest of the things he's taken from the other members. He prefers sparkly ones, like Geonhak's earrings, but every now and then he takes other bits and pieces he likes the look of too; a black cord tied around Keonhee's neck, a polyester flower pinned to Youngjo's jacket.

It's comforting, seeing all of their things together, like how Dongju fills his bed with stuffed toys to keep him company at night. He's not afraid to reach out to his members when he needs too, when he's shaking and anxious or lonely, pulling himself into their arms, and his collection makes him feel secure in the same kind of way. Dongju seldom leaves the dorm without wearing at least a piece of jewellery from one of them, even if it's just a pendant or a single ring. It's best when he has something from all of them, though — double layers of necklaces, fingers adorned with three rings at once, a brooch or a pin on the lapel of his jacket — it makes him feel close to them, a part of them.

His favourites are the ones that the others gift him willingly, though, without Dongju having to ask for or try and pilfer away. Youngjo leans easily into it, just like the first time with his collar pins, but the others can be kind like that too.

One day, Dongju comes home to the dorm to find Seoho and Geonhak sitting on the couch and watching something on the TV. When Dongju enters, Seoho beckons him over, and Geonhak throws a small paper bag at him when he approaches.

"What's this?" Dongju peers inside curiously, excited when he sees something glimmer inside. He flops down onto Geonhak's lap, tipping the bag upside down over his palm, and an earring slides out.

"We went shopping and found something nice for you," Seoho says, his eyes squinting into the half-moons of his smile.

It has lots of silver chains with pendants at the ends of them, like the beautiful hanging parts of a chandelier. It reminds Dongju of the earrings he likes to take from Geonhak, the kind that attaches on the lobe and then again on the upper part of the ear with a chain connecting the two points, but it has clip-on attachments instead of backing studs, and Dongju's eyes light up as he examines it.

"Put it on me," he says, swinging his legs up over Seoho's, resting his head on Geonhak's thigh. Geonhak does, clicking the earring into place with two sharp pinches. Dongju's used to the feeling now, though, and it doesn't hurt nearly as much it used to.

"You're so pretty, Dongju," Seoho says, stroking his ankle and humming, pleased.

Dongju's a little afraid that Geonhak might ask for his own earring back in return, but he doesn't, just runs his fingers through Dongju's hair and lets him fall asleep there, sprawled across their laps.

After a while, Dongju has amassed so many things that it's impossible to keep them to himself lest the rest of the group go either broke or without decoration, but he does like seeing them wear each other's things. He becomes used to the others rifling through his box for their favourite pieces, feels warm when he notices his own proclivity for mixing and matching rubbing off on the others. Rings become interchangeable, swapping hands every day, and seeing one of the delicate chains that he's picked out for himself hanging around Youngjo's neck or one of his brooches on Keonhee's cardigans makes him feel a strange sense of satisfaction.

The things that Dongju takes are shared around easily between all six of them, but never go back to their original owners for good. They're kept carefully in Dongju's jewellery box, where he watches over them and treasures them, and wants to keep them forever.

**Author's Note:**

> Bonus: [photos](https://oneusupdates.tumblr.com/post/616727886310834176/oneuszth-do-not-edit-or-crop-photo) [that](https://oneusupdates.tumblr.com/post/613958246421725184/saltyvanilla2-do-not-edit-or-crop-photo) [inspired](https://oneusupdates.tumblr.com/post/611967911487209472/blacksymphony97-do-not-edit-or-crop-photo) [me](https://oneusupdates.tumblr.com/post/188344632776/stayindream-do-not-edit-or-crop-photo) [while](https://oneusupdates.tumblr.com/post/611026725397217280/cometomehx-do-not-edit-or-crop-photo) [writing](https://oneusupdates.tumblr.com/post/190829795095/moongata67-do-not-edit-or-crop-photo) [this](https://oneusupdates.tumblr.com/post/190225123405/rainbow0902-do-not-edit-or-crop-photo).


End file.
